The War is On
by ElvenQueen18
Summary: Fifty sentences detailing Shirou's life before, during, and after the fifth Holy Grail War. Some Shirou/Saber.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fate/stay night.

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**1. Confusion  
**Shirou really couldn't figure Archer out; one minute, the man was giving him cryptic warnings and advice on mastering projection magic, and the next, he was saying he wanted to kill him.

**2. Trust  
**It seemed to Shirou that one of the first rules of the Grail Wars was this: you couldn't fully trust anyone; even alliances were supposed to be only temporary.

**3. Corrupted  
**After discovering that the Grail interpreted every wish in the most destructive way possible, he couldn't say he was surprised; a magical object with that much power had to be dangerous.

**4. Heckle  
**He was grateful that Rin was willing to give him magic lessons, but did she really have to criticize _everything_ he did?

**5. Kill  
**He wasn't a violent person by nature, and he'd wanted to get through the Holy Grail War with as little causalities as possible; however, as he realized that Kotomine was responsible for his father's death, he felt as though he could kill the priest with his bare hands and feel no remorse.

**6. Wary  
**Ilya was being quite friendly and wasn't at all acting like a threat, but Shirou still couldn't shake the suspicion that she would attack him if he let his guard down.

**7. Guilt  
**Some might call it irrational, but deep down inside, he felt guilty about living through his hometown's destruction when so many people had died.

**8. Technique  
**He may not have been a very powerful magus, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

**9. Name  
**It hadn't taken Shirou long to forget his original surname; as far as he was concerned, he was an Emiya through and through.

**10. Love  
**He used to not believe in love at first sight, but that was before he met Saber.

**11. Productivity  
**After Kiritsugu's death, Shirou put it upon himself to do the housework and cooking on his own; if he was focusing on doing chores or making a meal, then he couldn't dwell on things he didn't want to think about.

**12. Permanent  
**Some of the scars he had were ones that would never truly fade.

**13. Berate  
**A few of his teachers had chided him about his lack of attention during lessons, but how could he think about schoolwork when he had more important things—like how he was supposed to defeat the other Masters—to worry about?

**14. Boring  
**During the weeks and months that followed the end of the Grail War, he found himself thinking that life had become rather dull.

**15. Fire  
**It was a long time before he could look at a fire crackling in the fireplace without having flashbacks.

**16. Joy  
**Had he not been sustaining a wound from Lancer's Gae Bolg, he might have leapt for joy upon hearing Saber say she'd rather have him than anything the Holy Grail had to offer.

**17. Death  
**He knew he wasn't strong enough to protect Saber and live to tell the tale; if he could do nothing else, couldn't he at least die for her?

**18. Regret  
**As he confronted Shinji at school about the Blood Fort, he let himself feel a flash of regret for what his old childhood friend had become.

**19. Grief  
**He was no stranger to losing loved ones, but that didn't make the pain any easier to deal with.

**20. Normal  
**Even before he was drawn into the Grail War, normalcy was a luxury Shirou could never quite afford.

**21. Ghost  
**Throughout his life, he wondered from time to time if his adopted father was watching over him.

**22. Expense  
**The idea that Saber would strengthen her own power at the cost of someone else's life was completely unthinkable, and Shirou was insulted on her behalf when Rin suggested she'd do it.

**23. Help  
**Help was invaluable, and he couldn't have made it through the War without it.

**24. Secret  
**Shirou did feel guilty about telling half truths and outright lies to Taiga, but since he couldn't very well tell her about getting dragged into a secret tournament between magi and Epic Spirits, he didn't have much choice.

**25. Disturbed  
**He was well aware of how ruthless Ilya could be, but it still unnerved Shirou to hear her cheerfully talk about killing people.

**26. Class  
**Shirou figured he'd be a Saber or a Lancer if he was a Servant, but on occasion, he thought vaguely that the Archer class would be just as well.

**27.** **Objection  
**Saber's wish to redo the selection of the King was something Shirou strongly opposed; it took a while for him to realize that he simply didn't want to lose her.

**28. Day  
**Even though all the battles were supposed to take place at night, the idea that he'd get ambushed during the day wasn't looking too unlikely.

**29. Ground  
**He'd been knocked to the ground more times than he cared to remember, but he picked himself up every time.

**30. Similarity  
**He and Saber were both strong-willed people who thought more about others than themselves; it was what caused them to initially clash, but it was also what made them a good match.

**31. Connection  
**After spending a few hours with Ilya at the park, he thought it'd been like having a younger sister; a few months later, he appreciated the irony of that thought when he found out that the girl was Kiritsugu's daughter.

**32. Mask  
**In the seconds they had left before Saber's disappearance, he managed a smile even as he felt his heart break.

**33. Sick  
**Seeing the bloodied, broken corpses on the floor of the underground chapel, it was all Shirou could do to keep from puking.

**34. Save  
**Saving lives, championing justice, following in Kiritsugu's footsteps—no matter how he worded it, it was one of the few things he allowed himself to want.

**35. Proud  
**Shortly after the final battle with Berserker, he couldn't help but feel a little proud; how many people could claim they had helped kill a powerful Greek hero not just once, but seven times?

**36. Narrative  
**Shirou never thought of himself as an author, but he sometimes thought about writing down his story.

**37. Representation  
**Ultimately, that was what Unlimited Blade Works was—an accurate image of his soul that briefly replaced reality.

**38. Dream  
**Even years after it happened, he still had dreams about that huge fire.

**39. Weapon  
**He may have once been in the archery club, but his weapon of choice had always been a sword.

**40. Home  
**No matter how many adventures he had, no matter how many battles he fought in, he always found himself going back to the Emiya estate.

**41. Hope  
**In the years that followed, he learned he couldn't save everyone; what kept him going was the hope that he would find Saber again.

**42. Motivation  
**When he agreed to be a Master, he hadn't cared about getting the Holy Grail for himself; he only wanted to prevent a catastrophe if he could.

**43. Random  
**When he witnessed Archer and Lancer fight outside the school building, his thoughts on what he was seeing could be accurately described as: _What the hell?_

**44. Pause  
**He quickly learned there could be no pausing in a battle; it could be the last thing one did.

**45. Believe  
**The events of the Grail War were incredible, fantastic, and more than a little insane; Shirou doubted that the average citizen would ever believe they actually happened.

**46. Clothes  
**He soon lost count of how many times he had to wash blood out of his clothing.

**47. Break  
**Shirou knew he'd be in the middle of another battle sooner or later, but his date with Saber offered a short relief from all the fighting.

**48. Blush  
**His face felt unusually heated, and Shirou didn't know if it was because of his exertions during his two-hour training session or because of Saber complimenting him on his intensity.

**49. Mental  
**The torment of the Holy Grail's curse was indescribable, but he refused to let Kotomine break him like this.

**50. Time  
**At that moment—reuniting with the beautiful, golden-haired girl in a heavenly paradise—the six decades he spent separated from her did not compare to the eternity they now had together.


End file.
